Betsy Bloomingdale, a department store heir’s widow who hobnobbed with the world’s elite, epitomized high fashion and was best friends with former first lady Nancy Reagan, died July 19 at her home in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles. She was 93.
The socialite and philanthropist had congestive heart failure, said her daughter-in-law Justine Bloomingdale.
The daughter of a doctor in Beverly Hills, Calif., she married Alfred S. Bloomingdale — heir to the New York department store fortune — in 1946.
She patronized the hottest of haute couture designers in Europe and regularly made best-dressed lists. In 1976, she was fined after pleading guilty to altering an invoice to undervalue the price of imported Dior gowns.
Her home had 11 closets, and she was quoted on style by fashion magazines and gave lectures on style.
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“She maintained that the quality of one’s lifestyle does not necessarily depend on wealth; that a sense of style and taste are acquired with knowledge, not money,” according to an obituary from her family.
“She’s really a fashion icon,” the designer James Galanos told Women’s Wear Daily in 2009. “She still has a great figure. She’s tall and willowy. She knows what’s stylish and what suits her.”
When not jet-setting to Europe to shop or visit royalty, Mrs. Bloomingdale was renowned for hosting parties — many for charity — at the family’s Los Angeles mansion, where neighbors included such celebrities as Barbra Streisand.
Mrs. Bloomingdale was a guest at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.
Share this articleShareFor decades, Mrs. Bloomingdale and her husband were good friends with the Reagans. Alfred Bloomingdale was among the friends in Reagan’s “kitchen cabinet” who served as unofficial advisers and helped propel the actor to the presidency.
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Mrs. Bloomingdale was best friends with the first lady, dispensing tips on fashion and design.
The Bloomingdales were regulars in get-togethers at the Reagans’ California ranch and the White House, and Mrs. Bloomingdale remained close to Nancy Reagan after Ronald Reagan died in 2004.
"Like any widow, she adjusted," Mrs. Bloomingdale told People magazine after Nancy Reagan's death in March. "But Nancy missed Ronnie terribly and always."
When Alfred Bloomingdale died of cancer in 1982, Mrs. Bloomingdale became embroiled in a scandal after his longtime mistress, Vicki Morgan, sued her and the estate, contending that she had been promised lifetime support. The suit was later dismissed.
Mrs. Bloomingdale’s survivors include three children, Geoffrey, Robert and Lisa Bell; eight grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
—Associated Press
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